006, Alex’s Hard Lemonade (Better Name Pending)

I decided to give the lemonade a try. I didn’t really want to squeeze fresh lemons, but did want some good lemonade, so I took a trip to Whole Foods and got to shopping. The only fresh lemonade they had was the Whole Foods brand, 365, Pasteurized Lemonade. I got 1 Gallon Fresh Lemonade. I also scored about 9 lbs. of honey there, in the bulk foods section, for cheaper than the homebrew store can do ($2.29/lb instead of $2.50)! They also had three choices instead of just one – wildflower, clover, and something else. Sweet!

Anyway, I got home and whipped up a starter that consisted of 3/4 cup DME, about 1/3 gallon water, and and a packet of Lavlin EC-1118 (Champagne Yeast). 24 hours later, it was nicely bubbling away, so I sanitized the primary (a 3 gallon stainless steel pot) and got to work.

I added the lemonade along with 1/2 lb. Corn Sugar, and mixed them up. Along with it, I added my yeast starter. The total volume of the starter was just under 1/2 gallon giving me a total volume of about 1.5 gallons. I’ll let it sit and see how it does!

03/01/08

racked to secondary and recorded SG at 1.014

03/05/08

bottled. I did it a little bit hap-hazardously though. I added 3/16 cup priming sugar straight in (I was too lazy to boil it). I also added a little of the raspberry mead in there because it sounded good. It didn’t taste all that great either. I even forgot to take a reading on it. Oh well, it has to be about the same, as I saw no bubbles come out since I racked it.